Jake's Place for Books is a specialty used bookstore in the Arts District of Oak Park, IL. Although we specialize in theater, poetry, biography and other non-fiction, we have a full selection of genres for you to look through, including a nice assortment of paperbacks you need to have !We'll open the on-line store soon. In the meanwhile, stop by the live shop, sit in a comfy chair and smell the sweet, sweet fragrance of old books.

Theater & Drama

Remember that play you saw in the 3rd grade and always wanted to reread? We've got it here waiting for you! Or, maybe you're in desperate need of Walter Kerr's reviews from the 60's. Yup, that's here, too. At least it was; better hurry and see if it hasn't been sold already.

Come check out our selection of theater and drama books. Or, if you prefer shopping from your comfy chair, take a browse here.

Poetry

Sure, you vowed you would never read another poem again after having to memorize "The Song of Hiawatha" in 7th Grade. But you're an adult now and your soul needs poetry. Check out our selection and see if you can't find something more to your taste. Or, maybe try Longfellow again. Let us help -- "By the shores of Gitche Goomie..."

Biography & Memoirs

Explore the rich variety of biographies, memoirs, letters and auto- (ahem, ghost-written) biographies available. We have a nice selectionof human lives available for perusal - actors, film makers, politicians, writers, bons vivants, mals vivants. Okay, mostly we have mals vivants. Their lives are just so much more interesting!

Modern Fiction

Yeah, that's the man. The one and only. The super-power that is David Foster Wallace. No, I won't use the past tense. There won't be another like him. Not in my lifetime. Then again, I'm very old. But we do have his books here for sale. And lots of lesser gods. Come check 'em out.**Okay, lesser gods is probably unnecessarily derogatory. And you can't really say much bad about Updike or Morrison. Or Mailer or Bellow. Or Oates or Updike. Or Alexie or de Beauvoir. Well, I suppose you could. Heaven knows we all have opinions.

Although you won't see them in the store, Jake's Place has a nice selection of gay histerotica. (Like that? I made it up myself!) From copies of Christopher Street, possibly the first openly gay magazine taken seriously for its fiction, to chap books from the '60s and '70s, there's "something for everyone." (Get it? Angela Lansbury? A young Michael York? Oh, never mind.) Although there's nothing overt here, the titles of some of the chap books are doubtlessly inappropriate for those of you younger than 18. Or for those of you who don't like that sort of thing.

Come see our storefront on Harrison Street in the Arts District of Oak Park. It's a quick walk from the Austin Blue Line El stop (use the Lombard exit) and a heartbeat away from the Austin exit off 290.